Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Tennessee's Gateway to Sex...and Ultrarunning

David Taintor at Talking Points Memo writes on Tuesday about some proposed legislation in Tennessee:

You’ve heard of gateway drugs — smoking marijuana supposedly leads to harder, more addictive substances. But what about “gateway sexual activity”: the hand-holding, lip-locking and light-grazes that can lead to … other things?

The Tennessee Legislature on Friday sent a bill to Gov. Bill Haslam’s desk that, according to the Tennessean, would require sex-ed classes to “exclusively and emphatically” promote abstinence and ban teachers and outside groups from promoting “gateway sexual activity.”

The bill defines “gateway sexual activity” as: “sexual conduct encouraging an individual to engage in a non-abstinent behavior.” The bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Jim Gotto, said the bill wouldn’t address things as innocuous as holding hands, the Knoxville News Sentinelreports. But critics of the legislation say the offending behavior is not clearly defined.

So, if this bill passes, teens in TN will only be able to hear about abstinence--exclusively and emphatically --as a method of birth control. Yet another example of denialism that avoids a substantive recognition of basic facts. David's post was followed by this insightful thought by commenter Rick T:

Hillbilly world, incest, and other unproductive prejudices aside, there's something much more insidious at work here.

--SNIP--

That flips my conspiracy trigger. Teenagers still in high school or just out, with no higher education, unexpectedly pregnant, in a culture that forces them to wed. On top of that, pressure to get a mortgage.

It sounds like an attempt to socially engineer a self sustaining uneducated, debt driven, working class.

There is no link to Ultrarunning, other than I'm glad I have this sport so I can disengage from the crazy.